Culture
on the cheap: value-for-money arts
The City may be in meltdown. The news may be grim and grimmer. But out there,
away from the flickering cathode ray of doom that is the news every night,
lies cultural riches in abundance. Quite simply, and in contrast to the
depression and chaos gripping the financial markets, this is a cultural
boomtime: from visual art to theatre, pop music to film, classical music and
opera to comedy, there are brilliant things to go and see, enjoy - and then
boast happily about at dinner parties afterwards. If someone asks you if
you've seen Ivanov, or Rothko, you should be able to answer yes and
knowledgeably praise Branagh's career-regenerating performance and the
profound solemnity of Rothko's autumnal palette.
“Don't miss” is something of a poster cliché, but it is the only useful thing
to say when considering the astonishingly beautiful, extravagantly designed
and exquisitely danced Swan Lake at the Royal Opera House; or the charged,
emotional stew of Danny Boyle's latest film, Slumdog Millionaire, which
closes this year's Times BFI London Film Festival - both will leave you
breathless, enriched and elated. Our critics' guide here, will, we hope,
prove useful.
Luxuriate in this cultural Indian summer, because in time the arts could feel
the chill wind of the recession. The banks and multinationals so keen to
have the kudos of sponsoring big gallery shows and concert seasons may soon
feel that their money and attention are better spent on shoring up business.
Art and culture go hand in hand with patronage and philanthropy, and the
concern must be that when the going gets grittier, the arts themselves will
suffer. Forthcoming sales of postwar art in London and New York (in
mid-October and early November) will be closely scrutinised for any sign
that the art market bubble is about to burst.
So before we are all doomed, and the Tate becomes a cash and carry, get out
there. The pearls are not just to be found in London. Vasily Petrenko is
working his magic as principal conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
Orchestra. The Northern Sinfonia is celebrating its 50th anniversary at the
Sage, Gateshead. Leonard Cohen, Duffy, the Kooks and Elton John are having
national tours. Samuel L. Jackson will terrify you in the movie Lakeview
Terrace (out on December 5), while any Christmas claustrophobia will be
extinguished by Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman's frontiering adventures in
Baz Luhrmann's keenly awaited epic Australia (out on Boxing Day).
The best surprises are often off the beaten track. Away from the blockbusters
and big names, find time to experience Savion Glover, hip-hop's answer to
Fred Astaire, at Sadler's Wells (November 26-29), Steve McQueen's amazing
film, Hunger, about IRA hunger strikers (out on October 31) and Matthew
Bourne's Edward Scissorhands, our kind of Christmas show, at Sadler's Wells
(December 2-January 18). You won't be able to go out and see everything of
course, but even if it's only one that's still two hours of your life in
which the words “credit crunch” and “downturn” will evaporate away. Tim
Teeman, Arts and Entertainment Editor
FILM
Trust Bond to strike the perfect autumnal note. Another insane genius with
deep pockets is on the loose in Marc Forster's rip-roaring adventure Quantum
of Solace (released on October 31). Daniel Craig reprises his role as 007 in
a fiendish plot inspired by Sebastian Faulks's beautifully crafted book.
Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro star as blood brothers in a heroic
Chinese epic, The Warlords (Tau ming chong, November 7). The story is based
on The Assassination of Ma, a Qing Dynasty fable about the murder of a
famous general. John Erick Dowdle injects a dose of chilly horror to the
season with Quarantine (November 14), a remake of the Spanish thriller
[REC], in which a reality TV presenter and her cameraman are inexplicably
contained in an apartment block by police gunmen and local emergency
services.
Ari Folman's Waltz With Bashir (November 21) is more thoughtful art. The
animated documentary features the stories and voices of Israeli soldiers who
fought in the Lebanon conflict in the 1980s. Finally, Tilda Swinton is
magnetic as Julia (December 7), an alcoholic who gets involved in a
desperate scam to extort money by using a rich young boy as bait. Erick
Zonca and Camille Natta's thriller is a terrific and terrifying watch.
James Christopher
ROCK & POP
We may be plunging headlong into depression, but there are some things that
we're simply not prepared to give up. We are still going to see bands. It's
just that, quite possibly, the bands we desire to see are not the same as
before. Take Leonard Cohen, above, a modest seller over four decades, now
one of the biggest live draws of the year. He serenaded Glastonbury to a
sombre Sunday reverie, took the show around the hangars of Britain - and,
this autumn, returns to play venues that more commonly play host to Take
That and the Spice Girls (www.leonardcohen.com, November 1-20).
It's a similar story with Seattle's Fleet Foxes (October 28-November 11,
myspace.com/fleetfoxes). Their harmonic, choral, alt-folk balm is opening
doors hitherto unopenable to shy, hairy young men in plaid shirts. People
may not buy records in the quantities they used to, but the hunger for a
unique musical experience seems unabated - and that hunger has made the
annual Mencap Little Voice season of shows unmissable (mencapmusic.org.uk,
November 8-18). The shows have well-known bands playing acoustically in the
hushed environs of the Union Chapel in North London. Among those playing
this year are Keane, Snow Patrol and Glasvegas - the latter touring in their
own right soon (glasvegas.net, October 18-December 16).
Early reports from the European leg of Coldplay's tour suggest that by the
time Chris Martin and his chums arrive in the UK in December, they'll be at
the height of their capabilities (coldplay.com, November 29-December 23).
Pete Paphides
THEATRE
The autumn season has begun strongly and could well continue that way. Already
I've been sprinking stars around like a minor Greek god high on ambrosia:
four for Rupert Goold's imaginative reworking of Pirandello's Six Characters
in Search of an Author at the Gielgud (0844 4825130) and, at Wyndham's (0844
4825120), Michael Grandage's rehabilitation of Chekhov's Ivanov, with
Branagh in great form as the agonised antihero; five for Matthew Warchus's
revival of Alan Ayckbourn's Norman Conquests at the Old Vic (0870 0606628),
a trilogy that brings huge technical ingenuity to its hilariously scathing
portrait of love and marriage.
And I've high hopes and maybe even stellar ratings for the Doctor Who (sorry,
David Tennant) Love's Labour's Lost, which opens tonight in Stratford (0844
8001110), the brilliantly cast revival of Pinter's No Man's Land at the Duke
of York (0870 0606623), which I'll be reviewing tomorrow, Ralph Fiennes in
Oedipus at the Olivier (020-7452 3000) on October 15, and Jacobi's Malvolio
in the Twelfth Night that follows Ivanov into Wyndham's on December 10. And
new plays in revival-packed London? Well, David Hare's Gethsemane, about
“the way business, media and politics are entwined”, comes to the Cottesloe
(020-7452 3000) on November 11 and Neil LaBute's In a Dark Dark House hits
the Almeida (020-7359 4404) on November 27. That involves two troubled
brothers and should be, well, dark, which is fine by me.
Benedict Nightingale
VISUAL ARTS
Frieze Art Fair (www.friezeartfair.com www.tate.org.uk/britain) opens at the
end of next week. As a big flapping tent in Regent's Park becomes the focus
of the international art world, galleries all over the capital will be
showing off their finest wares. With a host of satellite projects from free
foot massages to talking parrots to young contemporaries in the zoo, the
whole city is transformed into a sort of aesthetic fairground. And there are
lots of free parties, too.
The sumptuously disturbing canvases of our most compelling postwar painter,
Francis Bacon, can be seen in a classic retrospective at Tate Britain
(tate.org.uk/modern). These are images to cut straight through the nervous
system and hijack the soul. Or, if that feels a bit nerve-racking, slip into
the contemplative oceans of Mark Rothko's late paintings at Tate Modern
where a series of 15 of his great Seagram murals unfurl about you in the
cloistral gloom.
If England were to sink into the sea tomorrow, you would be able to find out
what it was like by looking at what Ben Nicholson made of it. The first
major show of his work for more than a decade opens at the De La Warr
Pavilion in Bexhill, East Sussex (dlwp.com). But if it's a wider world you
are want to see, Annie Leibovitz captures its celebrity side with quirky
insight and startling clarity in A Photographer's Life at the National
Portrait Gallery (npg.org.uk).
Rachel Campbell-Johnston
COMEDY
Comedy works best when you can see the whites of a comic's eye without
squinting at a 30ft screen behind him or her to do so. But what the
expansion of the comedy industry sometimes takes away in intimacy, it adds
in the sheer profusion of good stuff to see this autumn. From now until
Christmas there are West End residencies for Eddie Izzard at the Lyric
(www.eddieizzard.com, November 17-December 12) and Bill Bailey at the
Gielgud (billbailey.co.uk, November 10-December 20, who is also doing his
orchestra show at the Albert Hall (royalalberthall.com, October 15-17).
The funniest show I've seen so far this autumn has been Steve Coogan is Alan
Partridge and Other Less Successful Characters. It's a bit sloppy, and
Coogan's genius shines brightest with Partridge, but he performs with
unwinking commitment to his characters.
Ongoing arena shows by The Mighty Boosh and Lee Evans have proved
disappointing. But there are excellent stand-up shows by Ed Byrne
(edbyrne.com) and the if.comedy runner-up Rhod Gilbert (myspace.com/
rhodgilbertcomedian) doing the rounds, while I eagerly await tours from the
wonderfully woeful John Shuttleworth (shuttleworths.co.uk, starts November
6) and the stand-up debut from the Fast Show star Simon Day (starts October
30).
Will their Drury Lane run be our last chance to see French and Saunders
(theatreroyaldrurylane.co.uk, October 15-November 8)? It will, it will, they
insist - at least as a double act. But the most fertile comedy event in
London recently has been the Big Joke festival at the Leicester Square
Theatre (leicestersquaretheatre.com). Acts still to come include the teenage
YouTube phenomenon Bo Burnham (Friday to Sun), the absurdist Dutch genius
Hans Teeuwen (October 17-18) and Australian clowns the Umbilical Brothers
(October 13-November 2).
Dominic Maxwell
CLASSICAL & OPERA
With brilliant young conductors at the helm in Liverpool, Birmingham and
London, the outlook for orchestral music is exceptional. And some specific
projects grab the attention. A South Bank festival Revealing Tchaikovsky
(www.southbankcentre.co.uk, 0871 6632500, from October 22) will give London
audiences the chance to reassess this most misunderstood of musical
geniuses. And the same venue is also mounting a week-long tribute to the
avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen (November 1-8), who died last
December.
The world's hottest tenor, Juan Diego Florez, is at Covent Garden for
Rossini's rarely seen Matilde di Shabran (roh.org.uk, 020-7304 4000, opens
October 23). English National Opera is about to stage another rarity:
Handel's Partenope (eno.org, 0870 1450200, from tomorrow). In Christopher
Alden's hands it won't be a tame period-costume drama.
Opera North is touring Of Thee I Sing, above (operanorth.co.uk, 0844 8482717)
- the Gershwins' 1931 satire on American elections. And for more
contemporary social satire, try For You, (Royal Opera House, October 28-
November 2) by Michael Berkeley and novelist Ian McEwan about a randy old
conductor who seduces female members of his orchestra. Who could they
possibly mean?
Richard Morrison
DANCE
When Monica Mason appointed Wayne McGregor as resident choreographer of the
Royal Ballet, more than a few eyebrows were raised. Was this edgy modernist
really the right man to take the company into the 21st century? Find out
when his new ballet, set to a score by the German minimalist Max Richter, is
premiered on November 13 (Royal Opera House: www.roh.org.uk, 020-7304 4000).
Russia's big hitter, the Mariinsky Ballet (formerly the Kirov), comes to
London (Sadler's Wells from October 13-16: sadlerswells.com, 0844 8710090)
with its version of trendy modernism when it presents a programme of chic
ballets by the trailblazing American, William Forsythe. Meanwhile, Kenneth
MacMillan's famously sexy Manon gets a chance to wow the regions, courtesy
of English National Ballet, from October 22-26 (Bristol Hippodrome:
ballet.org.uk, 0844 8471735).
The Dance Umbrella festival, which showcases modern dance, has fans excited at
the prospect of Mark Morris's new Romeo and Juliet from November 5 to 8
(Barbican Theatre: barbican.org.uk, 0845 1207553) - the one with the happy
ending. And Umbrella also has the autumn's most monumental show. On November
1-2, 120 young dancers will fill the Royal Albert Hall (royalalberthall.com,
020-7589 8212) stage for Overture 2012, choreographed by Royston Maldoom and
set to Shostakovich's great Tenth Symphony conducted by the London Symphony
Orchestra. Community dance at its most daring.
Debra Craine
MUSEUMS
Art galleries are too slick, our libraries are mutating into “ideas centres”,
but museums are still defiantly committed to teaching us something. Search
out the most esoteric and specialised: the Fan Museum in Greenwich; the
American Museum near Bath; the brilliant V&A Museum of Childhood in
Bethnal Green... all have their own bewitching power. They have things in
glass cases. They demand attention.
The Imperial War Museum in London has a great James Bond show
(http://london.iwm.org.uk, to March 1) as well as an examination of art and
the Holocaust (to August 31). Cold War Modern at the V&A (www.vam.ac.uk,
to January 11) is a colourful collision of art and politics. Byzantium
330-1453 (Royal Academy, royalacademy.org.uk, October 25-March 22) and
Babylon (British Museum, britishmuseum.org, November 13-March 15) are likely
blockbusters. Expect impressive costumes at Magnificence of the Tsars (V&A,
December 10-March 29), while petrolheads will like the Science Museum's
celebration of Japanese cars (sciencemuseum.org, November 29-April 19). A
great examination of Le Corbusier is at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral
(liverpoolmetrocathedral.org.uk, to January 18); the development of Scottish
publishing is highlighted at the Central Library, Edinburgh
(edinburgh.gov.uk, to October 31) while the Lighthouse in Glasgow
investigates architecture (thelighthouse.co.uk, to January 11). In Bradford,
nostalgia fans will descend on Here's One We Made Earlier... 50 Years of
Blue Peter (National Media Museum, nationalmediamuseum.org.uk, October
18-January 11).
The Wellcome Collection examines the relationship between war and medicine
(wellcomecollection.org, November 22-February 15); Darwin at the Natural
History Museum promises to be a fascinating examination of the scientist's
life (nhm.ac.uk, November 14-April 19). The Barbican has three exhibitions
of war photography (barbican.org.uk, October 17-January 25), while the jewel
that is the Museum in Docklands has a super Jack The Ripper show
(museumindocklands.org.uk, to November 2).
Tim Teeman
FESTIVALS & EVENTS
The country is alive with festivals of all kinds this autumn. Visual art is
all over Liverpool at the Biennial, (www.biennial.com) drawing the city's
year as European Capital of Culture to a close. If film is your thing, The
Times BFI London Film Festival (timesonline.co.uk/lff) has everything from
studio blockbusters such as Frost/Nixon to tiny world cinema productions.
Elsewhere, the Sheffield International Documentary Festival
(sheffdocfest.com) offers workshops and masterclasses as well as a programme
that will delight and occasionally perturb. The Bradford Animation Festival
(nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/baf) celebrates the vibrant world of animated
film, and even the shorties get a look in at the Encounters Short Film
Festival (encounters-festival.org.uk) in Bristol.
Music is well represented too, at the BBC Electric Proms,
(bbc.co.uk/electricproms) taking place in London and Liverpool, with the
Streets, Razorlight, Goldfrapp, Burt Bacharach and more, while the London
Jazz Festival (londonjazzfestival.org) brings the likes of Courtney Pine,
Herbie Hancock and Milton Nascimento to the capital. Manchester will be
splitting its sides this month at its Comedy Festival
(manchestercomedyfestival.co.uk), with big names such as Dylan Moran and
Jimmy Carr as well as home-grown talent.
The London Rock'n'Roll Festival (londonrocknroll.com) offers a rare
opportunity to catch the rock pioneers Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard,
Wanda Jackson and Jack Scott for a series of concert dates in October and
November.
Books get a look in, too, at The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival
(cheltenhamfestivals.com). Don't miss readings and talks from Lord
Attenborough, Raymond Blanc, Janet Street-Porter and Roger Moore.
For a bit of everything, the Belfast Festival at Queen's (belfastfestival.com)
features events across the arts, kicking off with a first UK visit for Ennio
Morricone, and continuing with premieres from the choreographers Michael
Clark and Wayne McGregor, and performances from the singers Seu Jorge and
Martha Wainwright.
Nancy Durrant
